The present invention relates in general to input/output (I/O) interface in integrated circuits, and in particular to method and circuitry for distributing clock signals in a programmable logic device (PLD) that employs a multiple data rate interface.
To address the data bandwidth bottleneck in the interface between integrated circuits, high speed interface mechanisms have been developed which have helped increase the speed of data transfer and data throughput. In a multiple data rate interface scheme, two or more bits of data are transferred during each clock period. One example of multiple data rate is the so called double data rate, or DDR, technology, which performs two data operations in one clock cycle and achieves twice the throughput of data. This technology has enhanced the bandwidth performance of integrated circuits used in a wide array of applications from computers to communication systems. The DDR technique is being employed in, for example, today's synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) circuits.
The basic DDR implementation processes I/O data (also referred to as DQ signals) using both the rising edge and the falling edge of a clock signal DQS that functions as a data strobe to control the timing of data transfer. FIG. 1 shows the timing relationship between DQS and DQ signals. DQS is normally edge-aligned with DQ for a DDR interface operating in read mode (i.e., when receiving data at the I/Os). For optimum sampling of the data, internal to the integrated circuit, DQS is delayed by ¼ of the clock period to achieve a 90 degree phase shift between the edges of DQ and DQS. This ensures that the DQS edge occurs as close to the center of the DQ pulse as possible as shown in FIG. 1. It is desirable to implement this 90 degree phase shift as accurately and in as stable a manner as possible. However, typical phase shift techniques that use, for example, delay chains, are highly susceptible to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations. In addition, typical DDR timing specifications require a wide frequency range of operation from, e.g., 133 MHz to 200 MHz. This places further demands on the performance of the phase shift circuitry. Another factor that affects DQS strobe timing is the skew between DQS and DQ. In general, for improved timing accuracy it is desirable to minimize this skew as much as possible.
The programmable logic technology has also seen an increased demand for this type of multiple data rate interface. Some of the above constraints, however, are exacerbated when implementing a DDR interface in a PLD. In a typical PLD configuration, the DQS signal is first applied to a phase locked loop (PLL) to generate the required phase shift and alignment. The DQ signals are applied directly to respective I/O registers whose clock inputs receive the phase-corrected DQS signal. There are inherent delays in the routing of the DQS signal from the DQS pin to the PLL and then to the I/O registers, where the I/O registers can be very large in numbers located at varying distances. These delays contribute to the undesirable skew between DQS and DQ. Also, the same PLD may be configured to operate at any frequency in the DDR frequency range and thus must accommodate the various clock speeds. Yet another concern is the ever aggressive increase in density and number of I/Os that is typical of the PLD technology as it moves from one generation to the next. To speed up the time-to-market cycles for future PLDs, it is desirable to devise an interface architecture that facilitates pin migration from one product family to the next.